According to Polish press reports on 11th August, the country is planning to establish its own Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) capability, alongside the Raytheon RIM-161 SM-3 Block-IIA land-based Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs) that the country will host as part of NATO’s European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) BMD architecture.

The reports noted that the country’s Defence Minister Tomas Semonyak has mooted cooperation with Germany and France in developing a domestic BMD capability.

Mr. Semonyak did not specify the exact nature of the cooperation with either country. However, this may be an allusion to Poland procuring BMD-capable air defence systems from either country perhaps in the form of Raytheon MIM-104 Patriot medium-to-high altitude SAMs which the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) is looking to sell to a third party, or the acquisition of MBDA SAMP/T medium-to-high altitude SAM systems from France, along with Thales GroundMaster-400 radars which have the capability to detect theatre ballistic missiles.

It is also unclear if this BMD capability would be procured as part of Poland’s existing requirement for a new medium-range SAM system, or instead as a separate capability.